tcaptain:The worst example of this was last year when Zellers (in the US, KMart would be a close approximation) went out of business up here in Canuckistan. The "Final Liquidation - Everything MUST go! Up to 90% off" signs went up a week before the cut off day.

My office was right next to a location so it was fairly easy to check out. I used to like their "Hunt Club" Khakis, I had bought some reasonably recently and knew their prices went from 34.99 regular to around 20 bucks on sale.

The liquidation price? 69.99!!!! The regular price was marked at 187 dollars. I can tell you Zellers has NEVER farkin sold a pair of pants for almost 200 bucks.

It was insane, even the video games...nothing less than 20 bucks with "regular" prices in excess of 80 to 90 dollars.

How they go away with this shiat I will never know.

I've been to a few going out of business sales and observed tr same thing. They hire an outside company to come in and operate the sale. All the good stuff has been sold or relocated before the sale starts and the "regular" prices are highly inflated.

When I was a kid I worked in Woolworths (UK version, it was like Target). Every staff member's employment agreement stated we had to work Christmas Eve for a few hours after closing, which was also pointed out by the interviewer when you went for the job. I always wondered why, until Dec 24.

I turned up to find the stockroom was literally filled with newly delivered crates for sale merchandise stamped with a massive label "Do not sell until Dec 26". Pretty much every box was filled with cheap crap. The staff had four hours to basically empty the entire shop floor and re-stack the shelves with the "Sale Stock" so we could reopen on Boxing Day ready for "The Sale".

umad:jclaggett: born_yesterday: Ponzholio: I don't think I've ever purchased anything from Kohl's without the 30% off coupon AND Kohl's cash. I know full well it's a marketing gimmick but I'll be damned if I don't leave that place without some sort of self-accomplishment.

Bed Bath and Beyond doesn't do cash AFAIK, but their 20% off coupon is a necessity as well. It's the cheapest place I've found to buy razor blades, believe it or not, if I have one of those coupons.

/Please tell me if you know of a place to get inexpensive Mach 3 blades

In electronics, the most "amazing" Black Friday deals, such as TVs and tablets for under $100, are horrible, cheap Chinese knock-offs that you can buy any day of the year online for the same price if you're willing to wait for them to ship from China.

But people line up and act like animals to get cheap crap like this:

And let me remind you: RCA and Magnavox don't make TVs anymore... They buy cheap Chinese crap and slap their name on it. Same goes for Westinghouse, Mathis, Element, and most store brands like Insignia and Hisense (Walmart store brand). They're generally going to be crappy.

When it comes to tablets, stick with these brands:SamsungMicrosoftAppleASUSAcerKindleNookMEEP! (for kids)HPLenovoGoogle (Nexus)

And that's it, unless you confirm that a particular model is really LG or Vizio (such as Zenith, which is Vizio). And let me point out that Vizio, while not completely bad, is definitely not going to be as nice as a Samsung, Sony, Sharp, or even most LGs.

If the store is selling an Element, Seiki, Westinghouse, or RCA TV for cheap, there's a reason for it: It IS cheap. It WILL die a lot sooner than the competition. With TVs you really do get what you pay for.

Yeah. About three weeks ago I went to an outlet center. "50% of all merchandise!" at one store. Sounds great, until you see the original sticker price for a fleece jacket was $90. Are people really that dumb? Here in Orlando, I swear they've given up on the locals and are just trying to sucker tourists - especially tourists from other countries.

Yes, yes they are.

I used to work at a retail sporting goods store. We sold NHL Jerseys for $150 retail, but there was a 50-week sale on them every year for $89.99. Then the other 2 weeks we'd have a 25% off sale on them, which we would advertise the hell out of. People would flock into the store and plop down $112.50 for the jerseys that sell for $22.50 less the rest of the year. And a sizable portion of these people would remark to me, as I was ringing them out, "Wow! I can't believe what a good deal I'm getting on these! They're normally $150!!".

I wanted to strangle them.

The important lesson I learned from that experience was to always follow prices for an item for at least a month before buying it.

James10952001:tcaptain: The worst example of this was last year when Zellers (in the US, KMart would be a close approximation) went out of business up here in Canuckistan. The "Final Liquidation - Everything MUST go! Up to 90% off" signs went up a week before the cut off day.

My office was right next to a location so it was fairly easy to check out. I used to like their "Hunt Club" Khakis, I had bought some reasonably recently and knew their prices went from 34.99 regular to around 20 bucks on sale.

The liquidation price? 69.99!!!! The regular price was marked at 187 dollars. I can tell you Zellers has NEVER farkin sold a pair of pants for almost 200 bucks.

It was insane, even the video games...nothing less than 20 bucks with "regular" prices in excess of 80 to 90 dollars.

How they go away with this shiat I will never know.

I've been to a few going out of business sales and observed tr same thing. They hire an outside company to come in and operate the sale. All the good stuff has been sold or relocated before the sale starts and the "regular" prices are highly inflated.

It's illegal to mark something up beyond what you've ever sold it for and then put it on" sale" and advertise the sale price as X% OFF!

However companies get around this by when they are going out of business, selling their ENTIRE inventory, including the rights to use their name to a "liquidation" company. Since the company managing the going out of business sale is technically a new company, they can set whatever "regular" price they want, an then advertise steep markdowns from there (anybody who went into Circuit City or Borders in the last days of their existence saw this in action). It's a complete scam but it works on way too many people

And that's it, unless you confirm that a particular model is really LG or Vizio (such as Zenith, which is Vizio). And let me point out that Vizio, while not completely bad, is definitely not going to be as nice as a Samsung, Sony, Sharp, or even most LGs.

Magorn:James10952001: tcaptain: The worst example of this was last year when Zellers (in the US, KMart would be a close approximation) went out of business up here in Canuckistan. The "Final Liquidation - Everything MUST go! Up to 90% off" signs went up a week before the cut off day.

My office was right next to a location so it was fairly easy to check out. I used to like their "Hunt Club" Khakis, I had bought some reasonably recently and knew their prices went from 34.99 regular to around 20 bucks on sale.

The liquidation price? 69.99!!!! The regular price was marked at 187 dollars. I can tell you Zellers has NEVER farkin sold a pair of pants for almost 200 bucks.

It was insane, even the video games...nothing less than 20 bucks with "regular" prices in excess of 80 to 90 dollars.

How they go away with this shiat I will never know.

I've been to a few going out of business sales and observed tr same thing. They hire an outside company to come in and operate the sale. All the good stuff has been sold or relocated before the sale starts and the "regular" prices are highly inflated.

It's illegal to mark something up beyond what you've ever sold it for and then put it on" sale" and advertise the sale price as X% OFF!

However companies get around this by when they are going out of business, selling their ENTIRE inventory, including the rights to use their name to a "liquidation" company. Since the company managing the going out of business sale is technically a new company, they can set whatever "regular" price they want, an then advertise steep markdowns from there (anybody who went into Circuit City or Borders in the last days of their existence saw this in action). It's a complete scam but it works on way too many people

Wife and I happened to be shopping for a TV when Circuit City was in the process of closing shop.

The prices were absofarkinglutely marked up. One of the kids working there told us if we were looking to buy a tv, it would be better to buy it elsewhere.

sigdiamond2000:I'm typing this from outside of a Best Buy in Ashtabula, Ohio, so I'm getting a kick out of these replies. I've been camped out here for four days now, singing songs and breaking bread with my fellow Black Friday Rangers. There's a sense of comraderie and fellowship on this sidewalk that I don't expect you cynics to understand.

I'm 6th in line, so I'm pretty much gauranteed a 35" Vizio 750p flat screen for $159. That's a great price for a great product and if you don;t think it's worth it, you need to get over yourselves.

sigdiamond2000:I'm typing this from outside of a Best Buy in Ashtabula, Ohio, so I'm getting a kick out of these replies. I've been camped out here for four days now, singing songs and breaking bread with my fellow Black Friday Rangers. There's a sense of comraderie and fellowship on this sidewalk that I don't expect you cynics to understand.

I'm 6th in line, so I'm pretty much gauranteed a 35" Vizio 750p flat screen for $159. That's a great price for a great product and if you don;t think it's worth it, you need to get over yourselves.

I paid $279 for a Zenith (Vizio) 50" a little over a year ago. I didn't even have to wait in line. Still works fine. Looks good. It's a nice enough TV.

So yeah, you're getting ripped off. $159 for a 35" (really? 35"? How odd.) middle-of-the-line TV is actually kind of a crap price. You just don't know how to shop properly.

tcaptain:The worst example of this was last year when Zellers (in the US, KMart would be a close approximation) went out of business up here in Canuckistan. The "Final Liquidation - Everything MUST go! Up to 90% off" signs went up a week before the cut off day.

My office was right next to a location so it was fairly easy to check out. I used to like their "Hunt Club" Khakis, I had bought some reasonably recently and knew their prices went from 34.99 regular to around 20 bucks on sale.

The liquidation price? 69.99!!!! The regular price was marked at 187 dollars. I can tell you Zellers has NEVER farkin sold a pair of pants for almost 200 bucks.

It was insane, even the video games...nothing less than 20 bucks with "regular" prices in excess of 80 to 90 dollars.

How they go away with this shiat I will never know.

There's an entire liquidation industry out there. I walked into a furniture store going through its death throes, and beheld a $679 end table.

And that's it, unless you confirm that a particular model is really LG or Vizio (such as Zenith, which is Vizio). And let me point out that Vizio, while not completely bad, is definitely not going to be as nice as a Samsung, Sony, Sharp, or even most LGs.

No love for Panasonic?

They're not terrible; They at least make their own TVs (as well as making them for JVC, Fujitsu, and Toshiba). Same with Hitachi/Fuji (jointly owned factories), Phillips, and a few others.

Let me amend, then, to name companies who are known to make their own TVs, or at least most parts of their own TVs:

Note that some of them, like Sony, don't make panels but do make all the other components. Sony uses Fijitsu/Hitachi or NEC panels, but their own electronics.

Also note that I was slightly wrong about Sharp. They're sliding away from making their own and instead doing a lot of re-branding of Pioneer/NEC TVs. RCA is also NEC, but it's often older models and the crappier, cheaper stuff.

One other thing: Don't ever be stupid enough to buy an HDTV with a built-in DVD player. It adds weight and heat, and they almost always fail within a year.

blindio:JohnCarter: Diogenes: sigdiamond2000: I'm typing this from outside of a Best Buy in Ashtabula, Ohio, so I'm getting a kick out of these replies. I've been camped out here for four days now, singing songs and breaking bread with my fellow Black Friday Rangers. There's a sense of comraderie and fellowship on this sidewalk that I don't expect you cynics to understand.

I'm 6th in line, so I'm pretty much gauranteed a 35" Vizio 750p flat screen for $159. That's a great price for a great product and if you don;t think it's worth it, you need to get over yourselves.

LOL. I'd love to have had regular updates showing the deterioration of the situation.

"Day 5: Food is becoming scarce and moral is at an all time low. Some are claiming there's talk of cannibalism, but I hope these are just rumors and speculation brought on by hunger, fatigue, cold and lack of sleep. One fellow shopper has restorted to drinking his own urine. The customers at the adjoining Barnes & Noble eye us with derision and contempt."

Day 6: All hope is almost lost as the blizzard has moved in and buried most of the waiting crowd. Please Lord forgive me but I cut open the recently deceased soccer mom from the suburbs and used what was left of her body heat to make it through the night. She was number 3 in line so I am up to 4 as also number 2 wandered off during the whiteout and is presumed dead. Through the blinding snow and frost on the Best Buy window I can still see my prize. I covet the TV and it will soon be mine...all mine...I may even purchase the extended warranty but that could be the hypothermia taking. I would weep but my tears would be frozen

Day 7: I might be delirious from hunger, but is $25 too much to pay for a hot dog from a food cart? It tasted fantastic, or at least, it tasted better than my shoe did on day 6. The extra $3 for mustard was totally worth it.

James10952001:Four days plus $159. For me that's about a $1000 TV at that point and that's only counting the missed work.

Bob Porter: Looks like you've been missing a lot of work lately.Peter Gibbons: I wouldn't say I've been *missing* it, Bob.

The one thing about camping out for hours is the assumption that you COULD be working...if you are unemployee or not scheduled that day or used a vacation day, then it factors into the X*Y>Z calculation and makes it more viable to camp out/ opportunity cost of coconuts and all.

MythDragon:Day 7: The white rabbit stopped by to talk to me again. He says he will hold my place in line so I can go get coffee from the forest badger, but I don't believe him. He wishes to own my tv. But I will not allow this to pass. I am so cold now. So very cold. I don't know if I am awake any more. I want to sleep but the chocolate cows are keepi ...

ryant123:blindio: JohnCarter: Diogenes: sigdiamond2000: I'm typing this from outside of a Best Buy in Ashtabula, Ohio, so I'm getting a kick out of these replies. I've been camped out here for four days now, singing songs and breaking bread with my fellow Black Friday Rangers. There's a sense of comraderie and fellowship on this sidewalk that I don't expect you cynics to understand.

I'm 6th in line, so I'm pretty much gauranteed a 35" Vizio 750p flat screen for $159. That's a great price for a great product and if you don;t think it's worth it, you need to get over yourselves.

LOL. I'd love to have had regular updates showing the deterioration of the situation.

"Day 5: Food is becoming scarce and moral is at an all time low. Some are claiming there's talk of cannibalism, but I hope these are just rumors and speculation brought on by hunger, fatigue, cold and lack of sleep. One fellow shopper has restorted to drinking his own urine. The customers at the adjoining Barnes & Noble eye us with derision and contempt."

Day 6: All hope is almost lost as the blizzard has moved in and buried most of the waiting crowd. Please Lord forgive me but I cut open the recently deceased soccer mom from the suburbs and used what was left of her body heat to make it through the night. She was number 3 in line so I am up to 4 as also number 2 wandered off during the whiteout and is presumed dead. Through the blinding snow and frost on the Best Buy window I can still see my prize. I covet the TV and it will soon be mine...all mine...I may even purchase the extended warranty but that could be the hypothermia taking. I would weep but my tears would be frozen

Day 7: I might be delirious from hunger, but is $25 too much to pay for a hot dog from a food cart? It tasted fantastic, or at least, it tasted better than my shoe did on day 6. The extra $3 for mustard was totally worth it.

sigdiamond2000:I'm typing this from outside of a Best Buy in Ashtabula, Ohio, so I'm getting a kick out of these replies. I've been camped out here for four days now, singing songs and breaking bread with my fellow Black Friday Rangers. There's a sense of comraderie and fellowship on this sidewalk that I don't expect you cynics to understand.

I'm 6th in line, so I'm pretty much gauranteed a 35" Vizio 750p flat screen for $159. That's a great price for a great product and if you don;t think it's worth it, you need to get over yourselves.

Assuming you're not full of it, I am so waiting to see what you have to say on Saturday when you find out that you've been had.

SevenizGud:MithrandirBooga: The important lesson I learned from that experience was to always follow prices for an item for at least a month before buying it.

Or, in lieu of the whole month-long thing, you ask yourself the question...is this item worth the price? If it is, then buy it. If it is not, then don't buy it.

I don't care if it's worth twice the price if I can get it for less by waiting a bit or shopping around. As long as the savings outweigh the effort I'll usually do it. It's not like shopping around is difficult in the Internet age.

phamwaa:tcaptain: The worst example of this was last year when Zellers (in the US, KMart would be a close approximation) went out of business up here in Canuckistan. The "Final Liquidation - Everything MUST go! Up to 90% off" signs went up a week before the cut off day.

My office was right next to a location so it was fairly easy to check out. I used to like their "Hunt Club" Khakis, I had bought some reasonably recently and knew their prices went from 34.99 regular to around 20 bucks on sale.

The liquidation price? 69.99!!!! The regular price was marked at 187 dollars. I can tell you Zellers has NEVER farkin sold a pair of pants for almost 200 bucks.

It was insane, even the video games...nothing less than 20 bucks with "regular" prices in excess of 80 to 90 dollars.

How they go away with this shiat I will never know.

There's an entire liquidation industry out there. I walked into a furniture store going through its death throes, and beheld a $679 end table.

Marked down from $849.

Liquidators are douchenozzles.

They're the template on which eBay flippers/scalpers base their entire world-view.

MythDragon:JohnCarter: Diogenes: sigdiamond2000: I'm typing this from outside of a Best Buy in Ashtabula, Ohio, so I'm getting a kick out of these replies. I've been camped out here for four days now, singing songs and breaking bread with my fellow Black Friday Rangers. There's a sense of comraderie and fellowship on this sidewalk that I don't expect you cynics to understand.

I'm 6th in line, so I'm pretty much gauranteed a 35" Vizio 750p flat screen for $159. That's a great price for a great product and if you don;t think it's worth it, you need to get over yourselves.

LOL. I'd love to have had regular updates showing the deterioration of the situation.

"Day 5: Food is becoming scarce and moral is at an all time low. Some are claiming there's talk of cannibalism, but I hope these are just rumors and speculation brought on by hunger, fatigue, cold and lack of sleep. One fellow shopper has restorted to drinking his own urine. The customers at the adjoining Barnes & Noble eye us with derision and contempt."

Day 6: All hope is almost lost as the blizzard has moved in and buried most of the waiting crowd. Please Lord forgive me but I cut open the recently deceased soccer mom from the suburbs and used what was left of her body heat to make it through the night. She was number 3 in line so I am up to 4 as also number 2 wandered off during the whiteout and is presumed dead. Through the blinding snow and frost on the Best Buy window I can still see my prize. I covet the TV and it will soon be mine...all mine...I may even purchase the extended warranty but that could be the hypothermia taking. I would weep but my tears would be frozen

Day 7: The white rabbit stopped by to talk to me again. He says he will hold my place in line so I can go get coffee from the forest badger, but I don't believe him. He wishes to own my tv. But I will not allow this to pass. I am so cold now. So very cold. I don't know if I am awake any more. I want to sleep but the chocolate cows are keepi ...

James10952001:SevenizGud: MithrandirBooga: The important lesson I learned from that experience was to always follow prices for an item for at least a month before buying it.

Or, in lieu of the whole month-long thing, you ask yourself the question...is this item worth the price? If it is, then buy it. If it is not, then don't buy it.

I don't care if it's worth twice the price if I can get it for less by waiting a bit or shopping around. As long as the savings outweigh the effort I'll usually do it. It's not like shopping around is difficult in the Internet age.

Oh, so the notion of waiting a bit or shopping around for a better price AND buying the one at half its value and reselling it for a profit in the interim never really factored into the decision-making process, eh? Mmmkay.

I know this is going to sound like Aunt Murtle's Facebook Status Update, but I'm getting farking sick of things being labelled as "Pre-Black Friday Sales." There's no such thing as Pre-Friday. It's farkin' Tuesday.

TV's Vinnie:If it weren't for Thanksgiving, the Coby company (makers of electronic dogsh*t) would have went out of business decades ago.

[salestores.com image 483x400]

HAHAHA! So true.

If you ever see a Coby HDTV, run away. Do not buy it. Not if it's $50. Not if it's $25. Do not buy it. It WILL fail within a year. It will probably fail within 90 days. It will also be made from components scraped out of dumpsters five years ago.

SevenizGud:James10952001: SevenizGud: MithrandirBooga: The important lesson I learned from that experience was to always follow prices for an item for at least a month before buying it.

Or, in lieu of the whole month-long thing, you ask yourself the question...is this item worth the price? If it is, then buy it. If it is not, then don't buy it.

I don't care if it's worth twice the price if I can get it for less by waiting a bit or shopping around. As long as the savings outweigh the effort I'll usually do it. It's not like shopping around is difficult in the Internet age.

Oh, so the notion of waiting a bit or shopping around for a better price AND buying the one at half its value and reselling it for a profit in the interim never really factored into the decision-making process, eh? Mmmkay.

Not really. I have a day job for income. I don't have the time or interest to deal with flipping shiat for profit. There is always risk, the hassle of finding and dealing with buyers, it's just not worth the effort. I have enough "stuff" at this point that when I go looking for something to buy, I usually have something very specific in mind. I do the research, read reviews, then shop around for the best price.

thefonz37:TomServo24: I don't think this articles tells the whole story. When I worked retail, I was able to look up the store's cost of items, and for the front page Black Friday deals, most were being sold below cost, particularly electronics where the margins are razor thin to begin with. The idea being that they are willing to take a real loss on a few items in order to increase traffic into the store to buy other items with more traditional retail markup.

That was my experience too. My last retail job was part-time at a Circuit City over the holidays, and I the Black Friday prep was mostly, "build lanes surrounded by low-cost, high-markup items that lead towards the sale items we're losing money on".

It's called a "loss leader" and retailers have been doing it for as long as there have been retailers.

TV's Vinnie:If it weren't for Thanksgiving, the Coby company (makers of electronic dogsh*t) would have went out of business decades ago.

[salestores.com image 483x400]

Coby actually filed for bankruptcy and closed up this past summer. But it's alright, I think we still have Craig and jwin and a bunch of others still kicking around.

As for Black Friday items, the only thing I'm really looking at is the 39" Insignia TV at Best Buy for a bedroom. I have a Samsung in my main room, but I have no qualms about buying a 'no-name' brand for the others. Usually the speakers suck ass, but nothing an old pair of PC speakers won't fix. Hey, the TV in my bedroom is over a year old now without problems. There isn't even a brand printed on the front of the TV (was made by some fly-by night company, Hetiker or something, which no longer looks to be in business).If you want cheap, disposable 'crap', Black Friday is great. Otherwise, you can probably get that same item another time of the year for a similar price.

ryant123:blindio: JohnCarter: Diogenes: sigdiamond2000: I'm typing this from outside of a Best Buy in Ashtabula, Ohio, so I'm getting a kick out of these replies. I've been camped out here for four days now, singing songs and breaking bread with my fellow Black Friday Rangers. There's a sense of comraderie and fellowship on this sidewalk that I don't expect you cynics to understand.

I'm 6th in line, so I'm pretty much gauranteed a 35" Vizio 750p flat screen for $159. That's a great price for a great product and if you don;t think it's worth it, you need to get over yourselves.

LOL. I'd love to have had regular updates showing the deterioration of the situation.

"Day 5: Food is becoming scarce and moral is at an all time low. Some are claiming there's talk of cannibalism, but I hope these are just rumors and speculation brought on by hunger, fatigue, cold and lack of sleep. One fellow shopper has restorted to drinking his own urine. The customers at the adjoining Barnes & Noble eye us with derision and contempt."

Day 6: All hope is almost lost as the blizzard has moved in and buried most of the waiting crowd. Please Lord forgive me but I cut open the recently deceased soccer mom from the suburbs and used what was left of her body heat to make it through the night. She was number 3 in line so I am up to 4 as also number 2 wandered off during the whiteout and is presumed dead. Through the blinding snow and frost on the Best Buy window I can still see my prize. I covet the TV and it will soon be mine...all mine...I may even purchase the extended warranty but that could be the hypothermia taking. I would weep but my tears would be frozen

Day 7: I might be delirious from hunger, but is $25 too much to pay for a hot dog from a food cart? It tasted fantastic, or at least, it tasted better than my shoe did on day 6. The extra $3 for mustard was totally worth it.

MBZ321:TV's Vinnie: If it weren't for Thanksgiving, the Coby company (makers of electronic dogsh*t) would have went out of business decades ago.

[salestores.com image 483x400]

Coby actually filed for bankruptcy and closed up this past summer. But it's alright, I think we still have Craig and jwin and a bunch of others still kicking around.

As for Black Friday items, the only thing I'm really looking at is the 39" Insignia TV at Best Buy for a bedroom. I have a Samsung in my main room, but I have no qualms about buying a 'no-name' brand for the others. Usually the speakers suck ass, but nothing an old pair of PC speakers won't fix. Hey, the TV in my bedroom is over a year old now without problems. There isn't even a brand printed on the front of the TV (was made by some fly-by night company, Hetiker or something, which no longer looks to be in business).If you want cheap, disposable 'crap', Black Friday is great. Otherwise, you can probably get that same item another time of the year for a similar price.

We have a lot of different brands of TV at work for product testing. Most of them, even the no-name junk holds up fine and those that failed I've been able to fix by replacing capacitors in the power supply section.

A lot of them have buggy flaky user interfaces though and HDMI handshaking is problematic on some of them.

*shrug* The actual components are mostly commodity parts these days and everything is highly integrated. There are only so many corners manufactures can cut.

born_yesterday:tcaptain: The worst example of this was last year when Zellers (in the US, KMart would be a close approximation) went out of business up here in Canuckistan. The "Final Liquidation - Everything MUST go! Up to 90% off" signs went up a week before the cut off day.

There is a furniture store here in Frederick -Routzahn's- that has been going out of business for the last seven years.

As a Fredericktonian, I cannot wait for someone else to build something there. That building is a monstrosity and the owners are embarrassing.

thornhill:Has anyone ever compared prices on Black Friday -- includes the promotions for the first 100 shoppers -- to what they are a week or so later?

My theory is that while prices go up the next day, within a few weeks they're back down.

Maybe I'm wrong, but my experience has been that good amount of the deals offered on Black Friday are inferior items/models that the store doesn't normally carry and orders specifically for Black Friday in limited quantities. I'm sure there are exceptions, but in my bygone Circuit City experience most of the laptops and TVs we sold on Black Friday were off-brand garbage you couldn't get in the store on the other 364 days of the year.